"Reset" Needed Between Local And National Government, Says New LGA Chair
(Local Government Association)
4 min read
The new head of the Local Government Association wants a “reset” in the relationship between Westminster and councils, having been “almost like a parent child relationship” in recent years.
Louise Gittins, the Labour leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council, was appointed to the cross-party position of chair of the Local Government Association earlier this month.
In an interview with PoliticsHome, she said that her “immediate priority” is going to be working with ministers in the new Labour Government, as she believes that councils hold “many of the solutions” to issues they want to solve.
“The immediate priority that I’ve got it to work with the new government because we need to reset our relationship: the relationship between central and local government,” she said.
“It was quite challenging, I would say in the past.
“I know that it was quite a strange relationship with national government, almost like a parent child relationship.”
She added: “My first priority is to work with the new government to reset that relationship, because we hold many of the solutions for the missions and the challenges the country is facing: house building, childrens and adult social care, homelessness, all the messages around economic growth and climate change.”
The way central and local government work with one another was thrown into the spotlight during the Covid lockdowns thanks to issues such as tiered restrictions and financial support.
Andy Burnham, the devolved Mayor of Greater Manchester told the Covid inquiry last year that there had been “a London centricity in decision making” over that period.
Gittins recalls the time around the pandemic in particular as being “hugely frustrating”, and a marker of the moment she believes the relationship between town halls and Whitehall went downhill.
“It progressively sort of deteriorated,” she said.
“We would find out about a policy that impacted on local government when it was announced. Well, it was usually briefed to the press before it was even announced in Parliament.
“There was no co-production, collaboration, sense checking and it was hugely frustrating.
“We were always on the back foot and having to adjust and change.”
Gittins’ predecessor Shaun Davies stood down from the position after he was elected as the Labour MP for Telford earlier this month.
The role of LGA chair is cross-party, and Gittins said she will work “very closely with the other group leaders” across the political parties on behalf of their residents.
Local government finances and their long-term sustainability are likely to be an issue on the Government’s agenda. Earlier this year, then Tory secretary of state Michael Gove signed off on an additional £600million for councils in England.
The money was made up of £500m made available for social care and £100m in other guarantees and grants. This was amid fears that rhe previously announced package would not be sufficient.
Earlier this month, Angela Rayner, the Secretary of State responsible for local government, told council leaders that the Keir Starmer administration would end the “Dragons Den” style bidding wars for funding pots.
Addressing an LGA event, she said: “We will end the Dragon’s Den approach, as I see it, of the bidding wars between local authorities and instead show you some respect with long-term funding giving you the flexibility to spend it where it is needed.”
In this Parliament, there are a number of newly elected MPs with backgrounds in local government, including Gittins’ predecessor Davies who represents Telford, and Labour's Georgia Gould, the former head of Camden Council who now represents Queen’s Park and Maida Vale in north London.
Charlie Dewhirst, the Conservative MP for Bridlington and the Wolds has experience as the deputy leader of East Riding of Yorkshire council, and Gregory Stafford was leader of the Conservative group in the London Borough of Ealing.
Gittins hopes that those who have come through the ranks of local government will “carry on flying the flag” for the sector in Parliament.
“It’s really good that we do have people that understand that if government wants to deliver then a lot of their ambitions will be delivered by local government.”
Earlier this month, Gould — who has already been appointed a minister in the Cabinet Office despite being newly elected — told PoliticsHome that having local councils bid against one another had led to “massive waste”.
She said that her experience at the north London council had taught her an “enormous amount” about how councils operate most effectively.
“One of the things that has been really difficult for us is the instability of funding, short term bits of money that we all have to bid against each other.
"It’s a massive waste spending our time bidding for these tiny pots rather than taking a strategic, long term view alongside councils.”
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